**Most Special and Unique on Earth

        The Lord supplies us with material needs, but today I see (and am most grateful) that he can fulfill our spiritual needs by purifying our hearts and making us holy! This is a huge deal not to be overlooked. This also makes us God's most special and unique creatures on earth.

***Keeping Intentions Pure

        I am glad that the Lord God looks at my intentions and not so much how well I actually get things done. This makes it possible for me to pass and not fail as a student learning from him. I also find that discerning my own intention is quite exciting. When I sense that my intention is not quite totally pure, I know that it's the Holy Spirit illuminating me. It's deeply satisfying to remain in intimate communion with the Lord.

****The Ego's Gotta Go!

        It is the presence of ego that causes us to lose peace. Without ego, we no longer care about ourselves, thus we become free. This is made possible by casting all our cares upon the Lord. Now the Lord takes total care of us!

***Starting from the Heart

        Since God looks mainly into our hearts, let him make them pure and spotless. The we can do all things comfortably from the heart. 

***Christ Most Beloved

        Because Christ is all mine, he is dearer to me than my own life, my own soul, and my very existence.

***Perfect Exchange*

        Communion experience. The Lord invited me to receive him, so I received him to let him take all of me.  

***Having All of God***

         In today's Gospel reading from Luke 8, Jesus said to the crowd, "To anyone who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away." So to have God, we must start with accepting him or something. As we trust in him more and more, we also receive more and more from him. The progress accelerates. Finally, with him taking complete charge, our part becomes effortless and a joy. Now we have all of God!

***Lesson on Trust

        At my age, having fallen numerous times, I make sure that I don't fall again. This morning as I was leaving home to attend the 7:30 morning Mass, I saw that my big garbage container placed next to the road ready to be emptied had been toppled by strong winds, and the garbage pickup truck was coming down the road. So I got out of my car, intending to put the container back in place. Well, after the early heavy rain, the ground was still wet. In reaching for the toppled container, I stepped on a pile of rounded stones and slipped. I first fell forward, then backward, and ended up lying on my back. Miraculously, even though parts of my clothing got all wet, I wasn't hurt at all. The garbage truck driver saw all that and came over to help me up and raised the container for me as well. Bless him! The lesson learned: We do what we sensibly should do, but unexpected things can still happen. Ultimately, it's our Lord God in control. So we always do our part, while putting all our trust in God.

***Most Horrible Feeling

        Being lost can be terrifying. In my lifetime it has happened to me that I completely forgot about doing something or lost something really important. Although this is not exactly a case of being lost yourself, the feeling is similar. Such experiences can affect one's psyche deeply. This morning I had a dream I was lost somewhere and panicked, and I woke up. Of course, that was just a dream. And I realized that the most horrible feeling you can possible have has to be the loss of your soul, knowing that you are now cut off from God forever. Don't ever let that happen to you or anyone else! 

**Who Is Smarter?

        The humble person or the proud one? The humble one knows his limits. When he encounters difficulties, he turns to the Lord for help and accomplishes his task. On the contrary, the proud one thinks he can do everything on his own. And one day he suffers defeat. He's now set back or injured, in worse shape than before.